The invention relates to a housing for electronic means, comprising a compartment with an opening which is arranged in a wall of the housing and which is suitable for allowing through a battery and placing it in the compartment, a cover, which is suitable for closing off the opening, spring means which are arranged inside the compartment and which are such as to develop a spring force, with the cover in its position closing the compartment opening, against the cover and the battery inside the compartment, and bearing means, which are arranged in the region of the opening and which have inwardly facing bearing surfaces which are suitable for bearing a section of the cover, and the cover and the remainder of the housing have dimensions which allow translation of the cover for displacing it from its closing position to a position in which it leaves the compartment opening open.
A housing of the above type is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,228. The prior art housing has pivot means at one end of its battery compartment cover allowing the cover to translate and simultaneously tilt slightly from the closing position of the cover against a spring force for disengaging the cover from bearing means provided by inside parts of the housing. The pivot means comprise a pair of inclined cover slots and two pintles protruding from the inside walls of the housing into said slots. The spring force is provided by a leaf spring and acts against said end of the cover in the direction which is substantially parallel to a main plane of the cover. The bearing means comprise detent hooks of said cover and projections provided on the inside wall of the housing for engaging the hooks to inhibit displacement of the cover from its closing position with its hooks supported on said projections away from the battery compartment. To open the compartment the cover is first translated, and because of the inclination of the pivot slots slightly tilted, to disengage the hooks of the cover from the projections they are resting on. After disengagement of the hooks from the protections the cover can be rotated around the pivot means to the outside, thereby exposing the battery compartment. For closing the compartment similar displacements of the cover are made in reverse order.
With the prior art housing the cover is not secured against unwanted or accidental translation of the cover and then rotation from its closed position. Such unwanted or accidental displacements may occur by an impact on the housing, in particular on the cover, for example when the housing is dropped onto the ground. Since the battery can move after the battery compartment opening is cleared, an electrical connection between contact faces of the battery and contacts of the remaining electronic means will generally be broken, with the result that these electronic means will no longer receive power from the battery and will cease to function. In some situations, this may represent a drawback, for example if the device is an emergency pager, which has to be activated, possibly automatically because of a fall of the wearer, so as to generate an alarm signal and/or transmit an emergency call. Furthermore, sparks may be produced when the said electrical connection is broken. In some situations, this can cause an explosion and/or fire.
The object of the invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the known housing.
This object is achieved for the housing of the type described in the introduction by that the spring means are arranged to urge the cover outwardly, a room between the cover and the battery placed in the compartment being sufficient to allow displacement of the cover, in sequence and vice versa, from its closing position moving inwardly against the spring force, tilting and inward translation, further tilting and outward translation of the cover, inside the housing, and opposite the cover, there are arranged blocking means which are operable from the outside to move a blocking part of the blocking means to or from the cover being in its C losing position to not allow and to allow respectively the removal of the cove r from the housing. As a result, the cover can only be removed if the locking means are expressly moved into a suitable position by a user from the outside. The result is a very safe embodiment which is emanently suitable for use in areas where there is a risk of explosion.